The Heiresses (42 page)

“Oh, no. Not this again. Why does everyone think I’m such a saint?” Clio shook her head vehemently.

“Because you are,” Thalia said, with a miserable sigh. “It’s just to show me up, I’m sure of it.” She changed tack and laughed then.

Clio laughed as well. “No, it’s really to annoy you, rather than to show you up. I’ve been practicing for years just for this moment, you know.” But then her expression grew serious and she clasped Thalia’s hand harder still. “Thalia, what you told me that day, at the nursing home … I’ll never forget it. I’ll never forget what they did to you. I wish I had known—that there was something that I could have done. I wish I could have shared that burden with you. I would have swapped with you, if I could.”

Thalia stared at her intently as she spoke. “But don’t you see? I know you would have. The real problem is,
I would have let you
. That’s what frightens me—that I’m just like them. And the last thing I want in this world is to be anything like the Haigh Parkers.”

“You’re not. You won’t be. I believe that with all my heart.”

But Thalia only glanced away. “I know you do. I just wish I believed it myself.”

*   *   *

Ro knew she should leave well enough alone, but she simply could not help herself. She had been stewing about the situation with Vincent for days now, and it was feeling concerned for Thalia that tipped her over the edge. Her simmering anger, previously directed mostly at her sister, now turned with full force toward the true wrongdoer here—Vincent. Ro knew quite well that Thalia had demonstrated beyond a shadow of a doubt that Vincent was putting her to ill use, but it took the shock of Thalia’s accident for Ro to truly see where her loyalty lies.

She took a guess as to when Vincent would most likely be in his rooms and made her way to his university for an unannounced visit, wondering ruefully if she would find him alone. She now realized she may very well find him entertaining company of the female persuasion and was, now she considered the situation further, surprised she hadn’t done so before.

As she climbed the final set of stairs that would lead to his rooms, she had to pause for a moment; she was almost breathless due to the sickening mix of anxiety and elation at the confrontation she hoped was about to take place. She had no idea what she would say to him – just that she needed to see him this one, final, time. To look him straight in the eye and show him that he had not broken her.

Outside his door, Ro paused before knocking, her two paths suddenly clear to her—the path she would have taken if Vincent had truly wanted her and her path now. Her future path. This was what she wanted to speak to him about—these two paths. Ro knocked then, loudly. Feeling bold, she didn’t wait for an answer, but took it upon herself to open the door straight away. What did she care now? If he were with some other girl, so be it.

“Ro!” Vincent looked up from the mess of his desk, surprised. Amazingly, Ro noted, he was, in fact, alone. Unless he had managed to secrete one or two females inside the small cupboard and drawers that were contained within his desk. She would not have put it past him, considering he had hidden her away when Genevieve had stopped by uninvited.

“Hello, Vincent.”

“But … I thought…” He stood up, confused. “What are you doing here?”

“Oh, I was in the area,” Ro replied breezily, not waiting for an invitation, but stepping inside and closing the door. She was quite aware that she looked lovely—a sweep of Thalia’s red lipstick, combined with a fabulous cream cotton-batiste embroidered peasant dress and matching hat that made the most of the summer’s day, saw her at her very best. “And I just wanted to let you know that there are no hard feelings. Which is really for the best. I mean, what if we have to work together in the future in some way?”

“Work together?” Vincent frowned. “Whatever do you mean?”

Ro took a deep breath. “Oh! Haven’t you heard? I’ve been accepted to study medicine. At Oxford!” It was a lie that had come to her as she knocked upon the door. But, Ro hoped, a believable one. And now that she had made the daring statement, Ro felt slightly giddy with the realization that she would make this lie come true. Not to show Vincent that she was capable and clever and ambitious enough, but to show herself so. She would try for a scholarship, ask Hestia for the money, or even stoop so low as to beg her Aunt Alice.

Vincent gave her an odd look. “Really? Is that what you want?”

“Yes,” Ro said as she nodded decidedly. “It is. And I have you to thank for it.”

“Me?” Vincent now looked more confused than ever.

Ro smiled her best, widest smile. “Yes. It was you who made me realize what I really wanted—my own study, my own research. Not to be standing in the background, applauding someone else’s.” She didn’t tell him that it was only seconds ago she had come to this conclusion.

“Ro…” Vincent sighed, cocking his head to one side. It was not until now that Ro realized how annoyingly condescending he could be.

“No.” Ro held up one hand, taking a deep breath. “It’s all right. I wouldn’t have been happy like that. With you, I mean. I would have been forever in the shadows, wouldn’t I? It would have been all about you. Not that you ever really wanted me. You were only interested in the promise of me. Of what I might have. And in my aunt’s connections.”

“Ro, that’s not true.”

“Yes, it is. Quite true. I see that now. I should have seen it before, but it took Thalia to make me wake up and see the whole situation for what it was. Not just with you, but with my upbringing as well. I mean, I do love my Uncle Henry, but I was wrong in thinking it was good and proper that he has always been oblivious to everything but his work. I see now that this only worked when my Aunt Charlotte was there to pick up after the pieces of the rest of his life, including me. I don’t want to be a part of something like that. I won’t make that same mistake. I won’t be like either my Aunt Charlotte, or my Uncle Henry.”

“Ro…” Vincent was seemingly lost for words.

“I just wanted to let you know that. And to tell you good-bye, properly. Thank you for your valuable lessons. I do mean that. I learned a lot in”—she blushed with this—“many ways. Still, I’m quite sure you’ll scheme your way into some titled family or another. Perhaps you’ll find a girl whose aunt is equally permissive, but not quite so knowledgeable about modern forms of birth control.
Voilà! Fait accompli!
”

And then, before he could utter one more word, Ro turned and left Vincent’s presence behind her, with a wide smile upon her face.

*   *   *

The following afternoon, Clio bit the inside of her cheek nervously—a nasty habit left over from childhood. When she realized what she was doing (biting her cheek) and where she was doing it (at Claridge’s), she stopped immediately and began to jiggle one knee beneath the white linen tablecloth instead.

She was still trying to regain her composure after walking through the hotel’s front entrance. The sparkling chandeliers and ivory columns had taken her breath away. It was as if she had been transported directly into one of the famous frothy, numerously tiered ivory wedding cakes Thalia had been showing her in an American magazine at breakfast that morning. Some of those wedding cakes had been very odd indeed, one even having an oversized baseball on top. It had all been very confusing. Why would anyone want a baseball on top of their wedding cake? (Thalia had suggested a lion for her cake!) And then there was the picture Thalia had shown her of Princess Mary’s wedding cake from 1922. “Look! Miniature electric light bulbs! Fifty of them!” Thalia had pressed the magazine into her hands. In Thalia’s fragile state (which really did not seem so fragile at all) Clio had not had the heart to tell her sister she doubted that her wedding cake would equal Princess Mary’s, or that there would be even one electric light bulb upon it, let alone fifty.

“Clio?” Hestia reached over and touched her niece’s hand.

Clio started and glanced at the two people sitting with her at the beautifully laid table with its fine bone china. “Oh, I’m sorry. Did you say something?”

Felix gave Hestia a wry smile. “Ah, young love. I do remember being in a complete daze like that. Rather wonderful, really.”

“I was actually thinking about Princess Mary’s famous wedding cake.” Clio was embarrassed to think they assumed she was daydreaming about Edwin, then she realized what she had said. “Not that I think mine will be anything like hers, of course, it was just that Thalia did go on about it this morning.”

Hestia laughed. “Yes, she did. She is quite … keen to help you with the preparations, isn’t she?”

“Just a little,” Clio said as she smiled slightly, before the thoughts she had been holding back for days rushed forth in an anxious avalanche. “I’m young, I know. And Kenya is so very far away, I know that, too. And I don’t want you to be disappointed in me, Hestia, or you to be sad that I’m leaving so soon, Felix, but I must. I know we are rushing, but I need to make my own life. And then there is my mother’s health to think of and…”

“Clio, Clio…,” Felix spoke up now. “No one is disappointed in you. Of course I am sad to see you go so quickly, but we have all the time in the world to get to know each other.”

Hestia only seemed confused. “Why would you think I was disappointed in you? Edwin seems to be a lovely young man and he comes from a very good family. Yes, he has acted a little foolishly in the past, but I think we can both recall times we acted a little foolishly in our youth.” She shared a knowing look with Felix.

“But … I thought…,” Clio started.

“Yes?” Hestia encouraged her onward. “What did you think?”

“Well, I thought you would be quite against marriage. I thought that’s why we were here.” Now it was Clio who was confused.

“Against marriage? Of course not! It might not suit me, but it suits other women very well. Do you know”—Hestia glanced at Felix conspiratorially—“Felix and I were speaking on the telephone just last night and we both agreed that, of you three girls, you are most like your mother in that very way?”

“Me?” Clio had been toying with the handle on the cup and it rattled noisily against its saucer now as she let it go and looked up at her aunt. “Really?” Felix had said so, of course, but she had thought he was simply being kind.

Both Hestia and Felix nodded. “Oh, yes,” Hestia continued. “You see, Demeter always longed for a family of her own, ever since she was a little girl—for a husband and children.”

“And let’s not forget she had an adventurous nature, as you have,” Felix added. “She would have adored a move to Kenya. I’m sure of it.”

Hestia smiled as she spoke about her dearly missed sister. “She certainly would have. How I wish she were here today. She would be so proud of you, Clio. So proud that you have come so far, when you almost never made it into the world. But she will be there, on your wedding day, in spirit. You may never have known her, but she is always there. Her looks in Thalia and Ro and her nature in you. I am truly blessed. It is almost as if I have her back with me once more.”

*   *   *

It was less than a week until Clio and Edwin’s wedding day, and the occupants of 32 Belgrave Square had been in a flurry of activity for what felt to Clio like several years now, though it had only been just over two weeks since she had accepted his proposal. She was unaccustomed to being the center of attention, to spending hours being pinned into a dress by a dressmaker, having a number of women stand about discussing her undergarments, making decisions on menus and terribly expensive cakes, and having her hair toyed with. Although she had not told anybody, she was longing for the wedding to be over and for married life to begin.

This morning, the triplets were making an impromptu visit to Liberty. While Thalia and Ro had made a huge fuss about choosing their outfits for Clio’s wedding the week before (and Clio had been glad when it was all sorted), another fuss had brewed this morning. There was to be a dinner, this evening, held at the town house, and her sisters had decided that new dresses were also required for that event. Clio herself didn’t give a fig what she wore and had told them so, but they had dragged her along anyway in order to get her opinion on their choices.

Now, she sat in the same seat Thalia had sat in months ago and, as Thalia had done, looked on as her sisters tried on dresses. As she waited for them to appear, she ruminated on how far they had come and how different their lives were now. Apart from the wedding fuss, she was glad to note that, for the last few weeks, all three of their lives had been running very smoothly. Clio had met Edwin’s family, who were all charming (well, Venetia was her usual awful self, but Edwin said she would get over him choosing her over Thalia eventually).

Edwin had been quite correct in that his parents were simply overjoyed that someone had finally made their son see sense. They had barely discussed her family situation, except to inquire after her mother’s health and how she was enjoying her stay with her aunt.

As for Ro, the horrible Vincent seemed to be entirely out of the picture and she seemed to have forgotten about him entirely, lost in reading medical textbook after medical textbook. Clio was enormously proud of how Ro had handled herself in the wake of Vincent’s betrayal. She had focused her energies entirely on her study and was almost obsessed with entering Oxford the following year. She had very quickly sat a scholarship exam and had yet another next week. All the while, Hestia was practically begging to pay Ro’s way and Clio knew she would love nothing more than to boast around town about sending her niece to Oxford to read Medicine. However, Ro was most determined to be admitted to the prestigious university under her own steam. Clio had no doubts as to what Ro would be doing a year from now.

And Thalia … well, Thalia had surprised Clio the most. She and Hestia had concocted some sort of scheme together to start up a home for wayward girls (though Thalia was quite set on naming it something else entirely and Clio did not blame her one bit). Clio was awfully pleased about it. Finally, Thalia’s energy could be directed toward something useful. And perhaps by helping others through similar problems, it would help put the ghosts of her own past to rest. She had yet to recover her memory of the events that led up to her crashing her beloved motorcar, but she seemed to be in perfect health otherwise.